This invention relates to an elastic doll bendable at predetermined sites therein and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly to an elastic doll which has a skeleton embedded therein and is constructed to be bent at only joints and a method for manufacturing the same.
Conventionally, a dress-up doll which is adapted to be bendable at arms and legs, resulting in the doll being deformed into a variety of desired figures and which is permitted to put on various dresses for enjoyment has been accepted by girls. The doll is typically constructed in such a manner as shown in FIG. 1A. More specifically, it includes a trunk 120, and arms 121 and legs 122 pivotally connected to the trunk 120. The arms 121 are each formed so as to be bendable about an elbow 123 and the legs 122 are each formed to be bendable about a knee 124.
When the conventional doll thus constructed is formed in imitation of a girl, wearing of long-sleeved clothes on the doll permits bent portions of the doll such as shoulders and knees to be out of sight. However, when the doll has a skirt worn thereon, it fails to keep the knees from sight, so that joints of the knees 124 are externally exposed as shown in FIG. 1B, resulting in the doll being rendered unnatural. In order to eliminate such a problem, an elastic doll which is made of an elastic synthetic resin material and constructed so as to prevent exposure of joints was proposed. The elastic doll includes a trunk, arms, legs and a head detachably supported on the trunk and has a metal core (wire) embedded therein. More particularly, such an elastic doll, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 35277/1988, is so configured that legs or arms each include an outer skin layer and a soft resin layer arranged in the outer skin layer. Also, a flexible core such as a wire is embedded in the soft resin layer. Such construction permits plastic deformation of the internal core, so that the elastic doll may be bent at a part of a body thereof like the human body and kept bent. Thus, the doll is held bent while permitting a surface of the doll to be soft, to thereby exhibit enhanced reality.
Unfortunately, the conventional elastic doll, when the core or wire is re-bent into an inverted dog-legged shape after it is bent into a dog-legged shape, causes both bending operations to be generally carried out at different sites therein rather than the same site. Thus, a portion of the elastic doll bent once is not restored to its former state by the re-bending operation, resulting in the portion being kept bent. The fact that the bending and re-bending are carried out at different sites causes problems such as unnatural operation of the doll, deformation of arms, a variation in length thereof and the like. Further, direct bending of the metal core such as a wire or the like causes it to be bent at an acute angle into a sharp shape such as an L-shape or a V-shape, unlike a core made of synthetic resin. Thus, stress is concentrated at only the bent portion, leading to possible breakage of the core. Breakage of the core in the elastic doll causes an end of the core to possibly break through a skin/flesh member of the elastic doll, to thereby be externally exposed, leading to damage to the human body. Also, the conventional elastic doll is unnatural because it causes sites therein other than joints to be unintendedly bent.
Insert molding of such an elastic doll causes holding of the core at a center in a mold to be highly difficult. The reason is that the insert molding requires to fix the core in the molding space while keeping it floating therein. Mere fixing of an end of the core corresponding to a hand of the doll or a foot thereof on an edge of a molding space fails to permit the above-described fixing of the core to be satisfactorily carried out. Also, it is required that the core be embedded in a trunk while being kept floating therein. An injection pressure of a molding material occurring during injection of the material into the molding space is highly increased, therefore, a failure in firm fixing of the core in the molding space causes the core to be forcibly moved by the pressure during the injection, so that the core is deviated from a center of the molding space, to thereby be readily abutted against an inner surface of the molding space. Thus, the conventional elastic doll has problems that the core is externally exposed from a surface of the elastic doll molded, the core is deviated from a center of the elastic doll, to thereby cause unnatural bending, and yields of the elastic doll are reduced.
The present invention has been made so as to eliminate the above-described problems of the prior art. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an elastic doll capable of being bent at sites therein which are to be bent and kept from being bent at sites therein which are not desired to be bent, to thereby be deformed into a natural figure or configuration and capable of being reduced in size, and a method for manufacturing the same.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an elastic doll which is capable of preventing stress from being locally concentrated on a core, to thereby ensure enhanced safety and endurance, and which is capable of exhibiting natural motion like motion of the human body and giving a touch like the human skin, and a method for manufacturing the same.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an elastic doll which is capable of permitting a core (skeleton member) embedded therein to be held at a central position in various parts of the doll, and a method for manufacturing the same.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an elastic doll is provided. The elastic doll includes a trunk, arms and legs in which a skeleton member is embedded, wherein the skeleton member includes flexible first cores and second cores made of rigid synthetic resin, the first cores and second cores are connected to each other, and the skeleton member is covered with a skin/flesh member made of soft synthetic resin.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first cores are made of metal, wherein the skeleton member is constituted by the first cores which are arranged at sites in the doll corresponding to joints and the second cores which are arranged at sites in the doll corresponding to distal ends thereof and positions between joints adjacent to each other. The term xe2x80x9cjointsxe2x80x9d in xe2x80x9csites corresponding to jointsxe2x80x9d does not means xe2x80x9call jointsxe2x80x9d. Thus, in the present invention, the first cores may be arranged at a part of the joints.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first cores are covered with synthetic resin.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the synthetic resin for covering the first cores and the soft synthetic resin for the skin/flesh member are each a thermoplastic elastomer.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the elastic doll further includes a neck having a part of the skeleton member embedded therein. The first cores are each constituted of a wire. The first cores arranged in the neck, the trunk and the arms and legs are different in diameter from each other.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the skeleton member is integrally formed or formed by integrally coupling skeleton components previously formed separately from each other to each other.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first cores in the arms and legs each have portions arranged in parallel to each other.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first cores are each bent at ends thereof.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first cores are each constituted by an elongated plate-like member made of metal or formed to have a coil-like shape.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second cores are each formed with a fixing shaft arranged so as to extend therefrom to a surface of the doll. The fixing shaft is made of a material which is compatible with the soft synthetic resin for the skin/flesh member.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the skeleton member includes a foot skeleton section incorporated in each of the legs. The foot skeleton section is externally exposed at a portion thereof corresponding to a sole of a foot of each of the legs from the sole.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first cores are each made of metal. The skeleton member is constituted by the first cores which are arranged at sites in the doll corresponding to joints and the second cores which are arranged at sites in the doll corresponding to distal ends thereof and positions between joints adjacent to each other. The trunk includes three of such first cores arranged therein so as to be vertically extended, wherein an outer two of the three first cores are inwardly curved with respect to each other.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second cores are formed at a place thereon facing the joint with small projections.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method for manufacturing an elastic doll is provided. The method includes the steps of: insert molding second cores on each of flexible first cores so as to be spaced from each other using a skeleton forming material, to thereby form a skeleton member including the first and second cores connected to each other; and insert molding a skin/flesh member on the skeleton member using a skin/flesh forming material.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the skeleton forming material and skin/flesh forming material are compatible with each other, so that the second cores and skin/flesh forming material are welded together during molding.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the skeleton forming material is polyolefin resin and the skin/flesh forming material is an elastomer.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the elastic doll includes a trunk, arms and legs in which a skeleton member is embedded. The skeleton forming material is rigid synthetic resin and the skin/flesh forming member is soft synthetic resin. The step of insert molding the second cores includes forming fixing shafts which extend from the second cores to a surface of the doll. The step of insert molding the skin/flesh member includes arranging the skeleton member in a mold for molding the skin/flesh member, fixing the fixing shafts on mating surfaces of the mold to stabilize the skeleton member and injecting the soft synthetic resin into the mold. The method further includes the steps of removing portions of the fixing shafts projected from the surface of the doll after molding and treating marks left on the surface of the doll due to removal of the projected portions of the fixing shafts.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the step of treating the marks is carried out by melting the surface of the doll.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the skeleton member includes a foot skeleton section incorporated in each of the legs. The step of insert molding the skin/flesh member includes directly abutting a rear surface of a distal end of each of the second cores corresponding to the foot skeleton section against an inner surface of molding spaces in the mold, to thereby securely hold the second cores therein.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first cores are each made of metal. The skeleton member is constituted by the first cores which are arranged at sites in the doll corresponding to joints and the second cores which are arranged at sites in the doll corresponding to distal ends thereof and positions between joints adjacent to each other. The trunk includes three of the first cores arranged therein so as to be vertically extended, wherein an outer two of the three first cores are inwardly curved with respect to each other.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second cores are formed at a place thereon facing a joint with small projections.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the fixing shafts are each arranged at a site in the doll at which an injection pressure of the soft synthetic resin is unstable when the soft synthetic resin is injected into the mold.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention,sa method for molding an elastic doll which includes a trunk, arms and legs in which a skeleton member is embedded is provided. The method includes the steps of providing cores made of rigid synthetic resin to constitute the skeleton member, wherein fixing shafts are formed to extend from the cores to a surface of the doll, arranging the skeleton member in a mold and fixing the fixing shafts on mating surfaces of the mold to stabilize the skeleton member, injecting soft synthetic resin into the mold, and removing portions of the fixing shafts projected from the surface of the doll after molding and treating marks left on the surface of the doll due to removal of the projected portions of the fixing shafts.
It is preferable that the treating of the marks be carried out by melting the surface of the doll.
It is preferable that the skeleton member include a foot skeleton section incorporated in each of the legs, and a rear surface of a distal end of each of the cores corresponding to the foot skeleton section be directly abutted against an inner surface of molding spaces in the mold, to thereby be securely held therein.
It is preferable that the skeleton member be constituted by first cores made of metal and arranged at sites in the doll corresponding to joints and second cores made of rigid synthetic resin and arranged at sites in the doll corresponding to distal ends thereof and positions between joints adjacent to each other, and the trunk include three of such first cores arranged therein so as to be vertically extended, wherein an outer two of the three first cores are inwardly curved with respect to each other.
In addition, it is preferable that the cores of the skeleton member be formed at a place thereon facing a joint with small projections.
It is preferable that the fixing shafts be each arranged at a site in the doll at which an injection pressure of the soft synthetic resin is unstable when the soft synthetic resin is injected into the mold.